Council, residents have mixed opinions on dog park
Thu, 2016-03-17 17:25
News Staff
By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
The City of Copperas Cove will not have a dog park in the immediate foreseeable future. That’s the opinion of the Copperas Cove city council after Tuesday night’s workshop. Joe Brown, the city’s Parks and Recreation Director, gave a presentation outlining what the city would need to do in order to have a dog park.
“Is it obtainable? Absolutely. Is it sustainable? I don’t know,” said council member George Duncan. “We’ve got parks that need attention and our residents are calling for that. We’re not giving it attention because we’re fiscally challenged to get those parks up to standard.”
At this point, the only way for the city to gain a dog park sooner would be if the private sector helped fund it. Under the advice of city manager Andrea Gardner, the council’s consensus was to put the dog park on a five-year longer range plan.
Five area residents spoke up about the park, several in favor, but one against and one advising caution where a park is concerned. Robert Sizemore said that sports for the children should take precedence over a dog park, that the ball fields need attention before the city should add a dog park. Jenny Shotwell, a member of More Paws 2 Love animal rescue group, said she was a bit nervous about the idea of the new dog park. She stated that when Killeen opened their dog park, there was an increase in dog deaths due to Parvo.
During the regular meeting that followed, the council held a second hearing to amend the city’s 2015-2016 general fund budget. It approved the amendment with an overall expenditure increase of $29,553. $18,500 of that is increased funds for the Parks and Recreation Department’s 2016 aquatics season.
The council sent a request from Victory Baptist Church for the city to participate in an infrastructure improvement project, back to the church. The size of the church’s planned expansion requires a higher flow volume of water than it currently has. The city offered several options to the church which would make city participation in the project possible under certain conditions.
Velia Key, the city’s director of financial services, presented the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for fiscal year 2015, which the council accepted. The city received a “clean” audit.
Marion Palumbo, Robert Cook and Debra Ann Hull were appointed by unanimous votes to three available positions on the city’s Library Advisory Board.
The council also approved the release of funds to purchase certificates of convenience and necessity from Kempner Water Supply Corporation. The CCN amounts to approximately 467 acres to serve Bellpas, Inc development and 412 acres to serve Dolph Moten property. This is based on a CCN purchase agreement dated October 24, 2003 and the amount of funds for this purchase is $313,803.
Last May, the city council approved the purchase of 2037.4 acres of CCN from Kempner Water Supply. At that time, the original 2003 purchase agreement between Copperas Cove and KWS couldn’t be located, but at Tuesday’s meeting city manage Andrea Gardner announced the city secretary did, in fact, locate that agreement in the city’s records.
An approximately quarter-mile of the southeast bypass starting at the intersection of F.M. 2657 is now 60 miles per hour, increased from 55 miles per hour, as requested by the Texas Department of Transportation and approved by the city council on Tuesday.
Fire Chief Michael Neujahr received authorization to submit an application for a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant. The 24-month grant amounting to 1,035,594 would pay for nine additional firefighters. Neujahr said Fire Station No. 3 would be fully staffed.
He shared additional information about the stipulations of the grant with the council, one being the city would not be obligated to fund those positions after the 24 months of funding is spent.
“I don’t want to be that fire chief that places the department in the situation where two years from now, we can’t fund those nine people, and then something terrible happens and we have to let them go,” Neujahr said. “I want to do what’s best for the department and the city.”
Neujahr said he will meet with the city manager and the budget director between now and the grant deadline of March 25 to see if funding is feasible to pay for those officers beyond the grant.
The council discussed the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce’s compliance with the Hotel Occupancy Tax Policy. The chamber didn’t present its January 2016 financial report to the council at the March 1 council meeting. City council member Marty Smith read a statement from departing chamber president Betty Price, stating the chamber was nearly finished with the new reporting format, and the chamber would present the report at the first meeting in April. The council voted to hold the disbursement of chamber funds until that time. It also called for the city to conduct an independent audit of the chamber’s tourism financials. An audit is required to be completed by the chamber upon the departure of its president.